Chapter Summaries

Lynn put Gwen Stacy in charge of assessing Sokovia’s vibranium reserves and technological legacy, forcing Hela and Wanda to cooperate with her before he decided how to divide the resources. As Gwen began her survey, she detected unusual biological signals beneath the ruins and secretly marked their location.

• Hela proposed allocating seventy percent of Sokovia’s vibranium to the Stability Maintenance Office, while Wanda argued for a Chaos Defense Matrix.
• Lynn appointed Gwen Stacy to lead the resource assessment and ordered Hela’s and Wanda’s departments to cooperate with her.
• Gwen accepted the assignment, and Hela left to assemble personnel while Wanda began scanning the area.
• Gwen accessed Sokovia’s preliminary scan data and detected unusually active biological signals beneath a residential ruin Wanda had cleared.
• Gwen secretly marked the coordinates and wondered whether Wanda had missed survivors or hidden assets deliberately.

Gwen Stacy used a geological survey to confront Wanda over the restricted Sokovia ruins and force her to address the hidden Mutant signals. As they faced off, Jean Grey detected the psychic disturbance and applied to travel to Sokovia to support potential Mutant survivors.

• Gwen Stacy requested joint surveys from Hela's and Wanda's departments, and Wanda restricted access to the residential ruins.
• Gwen Stacy approached the restricted zone to collect data and challenged Wanda to either provide access or accept responsibility for a written assessment.
• Wanda realized Gwen Stacy had cornered her with procedural rules and asked what she wanted.
• Jean Grey detected Wanda's emotional outburst and faint Mutant signals in Sokovia, then submitted an application to travel there.

Jean Grey intervened in Wanda and Gwen Stacy’s standoff, using the Mutants Management Committee’s jurisdiction to take control of the investigation while secretly demanding Gwen’s files on Pietro and the others. Hela then arrived with Lynn’s order for everyone to stop official work and return to the Negative Zone.

• Jean Grey arrived and told Wanda and Gwen Stacy that she would intervene in the investigation on behalf of the Mutants Management Committee.
• Jean criticized Gwen’s unauthorized entry, then cited unusual life signs beneath the restricted area to justify forming a joint working group under her leadership.
• Jean secretly asked Gwen for the detailed files on Pietro and the others, offering to help resolve the situation and warning that Gwen needed an ally.
• Hela emerged through a dark rift and ordered all personnel to cease official activities and return to the Negative Zone to report to Lynn.

Lynn reprimanded Gwen and Wanda over their actions in Sokovia, transferred the mutant survivors to Jean Grey’s department, and enforced a rule against concealing information. As Lynn prepared to leave, Wanda revealed that Tony Stark was secretly pursuing a project aimed at him.

• Lynn told Gwen that she had overstepped her duties by conducting a special investigation and required her to submit a written report with the others.
• Lynn reprimanded Wanda for failing to report the mutant survivors and trying to claim them for her department and personal agenda.
• Lynn ordered all five mutant survivors, including Pietro Maximoff, transferred to Jean Grey’s Mutants Management Committee.
• After Jean Grey and Gwen Stacy left, Wanda knelt before Lynn and revealed that Tony Stark was secretly advancing a project aimed at him.

Wanda reported that Tony Stark was secretly developing the Anti-Deity Armor with resources backed by Nick Fury, and Lynn assigned her to observe the project without interfering. Gwen Stacy then asked Lynn to let her go to New York to uncover Stark’s true trump card.

• Wanda presented Lynn with evidence that Stark Industries was developing the Anti-Deity Armor to counter supernatural powers, including Lynn’s.
• Wanda revealed that Nick Fury had secretly supported Stark’s project through S.H.I.E.L.D. resources.
• Lynn refused to let Wanda attack Stark and tasked her with monitoring every stage of the armor’s development.
• Wanda accepted the assignment and left the Negative Zone, while Lynn planned to use Stark’s project to fuel competition among his subordinates.
• Gwen Stacy contacted Lynn and asked to go to New York, offering to uncover Stark’s hidden trump card.

Lynn established the Cross-Dimensional and Special Threats Liaison Office and appointed Gwen Stacy to lead it, granting her official standing but no independent resources. In New York, Gwen detected Nick Fury’s covert activity and sent the single-word message “TVA.”

• Lynn defined the Liaison Office’s duties as monitoring Stark Industries’ technology risks and warning of possible cross-dimensional incursions.
• Lynn appointed Gwen Stacy as head of the Liaison Office at the same rank as the other department heads, while requiring her to request resources through them.
• Gwen Stacy arrived in New York and searched for traces of Tony Stark’s activity.
• Gwen Stacy detected a familiar covert biological trace and tracked it to an abandoned laundry hiding Nick Fury’s safe house.
• Gwen Stacy watched Nick Fury leave without confronting him, then sent “TVA” over an encrypted channel.

Gwen Stacy confronted Nick Fury on behalf of Lynn’s new Cross-Dimensional and Special Threat Liaison Office and forced him to hand over S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database access. Fury warned her that the TVA was targeting time variants like them, leaving Gwen with a new threat to investigate.

• Gwen found Nick Fury at an abandoned safe house and identified herself as a representative of Lynn’s Liaison Office.
• Gwen demanded access to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s core databases, arguing that Fury’s continued protection depended on his cooperation.
• Fury gave Gwen the highest-access key and said the databases were at the Hive base in Virginia, asking for time to evacuate personnel.
• Gwen gave Fury three days to complete the handover.
• Fury warned Gwen that the TVA was watching time variants like them before leaving.

After Gwen Stacy reported S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence and Fury’s warning about the TVA, Lynn sensed a disturbance in the timeline and ordered his leaders to prepare for unknown high-dimensional interference. His directive set Hela, Wanda, Jean Grey, and Gwen working toward a shared defense, leaving them in a new contest to prove their value.

• Gwen Stacy reported securing S.H.I.E.L.D.’s highest-access database key, the Hive’s Virginia location, and a warning from Nick Fury about the TVA; Lynn sensed a tiny ripple in the timeline linked to Gwen’s arrival.
• Lynn issued Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey a seventy-two-hour deadline to develop plans against high-dimensional interference, while assigning Gwen to provide intelligence and investigate S.H.I.E.L.D. networks for oversight backdoors.
• Hela received the order and recognized that she would have to work alongside Wanda and Jean Grey.
• Wanda wondered whether the high-dimensional interference was connected to the evidence Ultron had broadcast of Lynn dying for other women.
• Jean Grey saw the assignment as an opportunity to demonstrate her value to Lynn, while Gwen understood her intelligence role as protection from a direct power struggle.
• Lynn sensed the four women begin working in the same direction, launching an unseen competition to defend their shared authority.

Hela, Jean Grey, and Wanda held the Joint Working Group’s first meeting to decide how to respond to the unknown high-dimensional interference, but their competing bids for influence kept them divided. After Wanda proposed scanning reality for abnormal energy, she received a cryptic invitation from the Cross-Dimensional and Special Threat Liaison Office.

• Hela proposed putting her Stability Maintenance Office in charge of the assignment, but Jean Grey argued that Lynn’s document called for joint leadership and proper procedures.
• Wanda suggested activating the Chaos Perception Matrix to scan reality for abnormal energy and gather firsthand data.
• Hela set a deadline for each organization to submit its own plan within seventy-two hours, and Jean Grey and Wanda agreed.
• Hela returned to her Undead Base, Jean Grey went back to Xavier’s School, and Wanda stayed behind, anxious about producing results.
• Wanda accepted an encrypted communication from the Cross-Dimensional and Special Threat Liaison Office, which sent her coordinates and invited her to talk if she wanted to earn credit.

Gwen Stacy used flaws in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s destruction records to take control of questionable data during the Hive handover. Her energy scan revealed an unknown orange signature hidden in files erased with Tesseract energy, confirming that Fury's bait had led her toward a major discovery.

• Gwen Stacy asked Field to show her the Hive's destruction logs instead of signing the handover immediately.
• Gwen identified procedural flaws in the destruction record for a Winter Soldier Program genetic-sample file and invoked the handover agreement to classify it as high-risk contaminated data.
• Gwen marked additional records with similar flaws for isolation and transfer to the liaison office.
• Gwen scanned a server of erased files and detected a faint orange energy signature that matched no known force or system.

Lynn rejected Hela, Jean Grey, and Wanda’s proposed defenses for lacking evidence and ordered them to capture a live sample of High-Dimensional Interference. The three department heads accepted the mission, facing unsatisfactory evaluations if they failed, but had no idea where to find the enemy.

• Lynn criticized Hela’s troop expansion, Jean Grey’s psychic network, and Wanda’s chaos barrier for being unsupported by actual data.
• Lynn ordered the three to capture a live sample of High-Dimensional Interference and analyze its energy, operational logic, and capabilities before revising their plans.
• Hela, Jean Grey, and Wanda accepted the order after Lynn threatened to rate all three departments unsatisfactory if they failed.
• Hela, Jean Grey, and Wanda regrouped in empty space and realized they had no idea where to find the unseen enemy.

Wanda approached Gwen Stacy to trade access to Sokovia's vibranium research for intelligence that could help locate a target to capture alive. Gwen supplied coordinates tied to a pruned energy trace, and Wanda set out to investigate before Hela and Jean Grey.

• Wanda, stung by Lynn's criticism, decided she needed a concrete lead to regain the initiative.
• Wanda contacted Gwen Stacy and proposed a collaboration, offering the Liaison Office access to Sokovia's vibranium research in exchange for intelligence.
• Gwen Stacy accepted the research arrangement and revealed that S.H.I.E.L.D.'s archives contained traces of a forcibly pruned energy fluctuation linked to a destroyed 1990s Tesseract leak record.
• Gwen Stacy sent Wanda the coordinates of the last location where the physical file had been held, while leaving the on-site investigation to Wanda's department.
• Wanda transformed into scarlet mist and departed for the coordinates, hoping to reach the lead before Hela and Jean Grey.

Wanda investigated Gwen Stacy’s reported temporal anomaly on Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue and captured a physical sample of its strange energy. As she secured her evidence, Hela’s Undead Legion appeared at the scene.

• Wanda waited with her technical team at Gwen Stacy’s coordinates while Hela and Jean Grey searched for anomalies by other means.
• An orange portal pulled a young man away from an out-of-control taxi, and the street’s timeline reset, leaving only Wanda and her enhanced officers aware of what happened.
• Wanda ordered a Class A lockdown and used Chaos Magic to extract the lingering orange energy from reality.
• Wanda sealed the captured energy crystal in a vibranium-and-rune container, then saw Hela’s Undead Legion emerge from the shadows.

Wanda and Hela clashed over control of high-risk evidence in Manhattan until Jean Grey intervened and seized it for the Mutants Management Committee. Their powers erupted, triggering a higher-level warning and the descent of a supreme, displeased will.

• Hela arrived with undead soldiers and demanded that Wanda transfer the energy-crystal container to the Stability Maintenance Office.
• Wanda refused, accusing Hela of overstepping her authority and insisting that the Technology and Order Integration Department retain the evidence until its investigation was complete.
• Hela invoked the danger of the energy fluctuations and mocked Wanda over her failure in Sokovia, prompting Wanda to unleash chaos magic as Hela gathered death force.
• Jean Grey intervened, citing the Mutants Management Committee's jurisdiction and proposing that she seal the evidence while the three departments shared its data.
• Jean Grey used psychic force to take the container without waiting for Wanda's or Hela's consent, setting off an explosive clash that triggered a warning over Manhattan and drew down a supreme will.

Lynn stopped the confrontation between Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey and reframed the Manhattan incident as an illegal border crossing. He ordered the Joint Working Group to capture an intruder alive within forty-eight hours or face disbandment and failed performance ratings.

• Lynn appeared in the Negative Zone and called a meeting about the Sixth Avenue incident and the interdepartmental conflict.
• Hela blamed the Department of Technology for obstructing the Stability Maintenance Office, while Wanda accused Hela of unlawfully interfering with evidence collection.
• Jean Grey accepted some leadership responsibility and proposed reviewing coordination procedures rather than assigning individual blame.
• Lynn took the evidence container and declared that the orange portal represented an unregistered, illegal border crossing.
• Lynn ordered the group to detain one border crosser alive and produce an interrogation report within forty-eight hours, threatening to disband the group and mark their performance unsatisfactory.
• After Lynn left, Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey faced the deadline together, their shared pressure replacing their hostility.

Jean Grey proposed using a mutant with temporal perception to lure the cross-dimensional target into an ambush, and Hela and Wanda agreed to support the plan. Their teams sealed an abandoned factory around the bait, where an enormous orange gateway appeared.

• Jean Grey suggested creating controlled temporal fluctuations to draw out the target, and Hela and Wanda agreed to provide containment and signal blocking.
• Jean Grey brought the mutant codenamed Pendulum to the abandoned factory Gwen Stacy had identified and guided him as he released temporal fluctuations.
• Hela's Undead Legion surrounded the factory with three lines of containment while Wanda blocked spatial jumps and communications.
• The women concealed themselves and waited as Pendulum's perception of time grew increasingly chaotic.
• An orange ring appeared at the bait coordinates and expanded into an enormous gateway covered in strange runes.

Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey captured two Time Guards and uncovered the TVA’s plans while interrogating them. Jean Grey learned that Lynn and his allies were designated Time Variants and that the TVA intended to erase their entire timeline, leaving the group to prepare an urgent report for Lynn.

• Hela, Wanda, and Jean Grey ambushed the Time Guards as they attempted to prune Pendulum and had them taken to the Negative Zone.
• Hela questioned the restrained guards, and Jean Grey began extracting one guard’s memories after Wanda confirmed ordinary interrogation would not work.
• Jean Grey discovered that the TVA had flagged her group and Lynn as Time Variants, with Lynn assigned the highest risk classification.
• Jean Grey learned that the TVA was assembling the Adjudicators to physically erase their entire timeline.
• Jean Grey compiled the findings into an emergency report for Lynn, and Hela and Wanda agreed it needed to reach him immediately.

Lynn rejected Jean Grey, Hela, and Wanda’s alarmist report about the Time Variance Authority, criticizing their failure to verify the intelligence or assess the risks. He established a confidential task force to coordinate the response, named himself its leader, and left the others silently competing for influence over its operations.

• Jean Grey briefed Lynn and the leadership on a report alleging that the Time Variance Authority planned to overthrow the existing order and eliminate its core leadership.
• Lynn condemned Jean Grey, Hela, and Wanda for panicking over unverified intelligence and failing to provide a clear assessment or countermeasures.
• Lynn dissolved the report and officially rejected it, while telling the department heads to verify intelligence, assess risks, and prepare alternatives.
• Lynn established the Anti-Interference Confidential Task Force to collect intelligence, assess risks, and develop countermeasures, forbidding departments from acting independently.
• Lynn appointed himself task force leader, and Jean Grey, Hela, Wanda, and Gwen Stacy began eyeing the executive deputy leader position.

Lynn settled the task force's leadership dispute by assigning the liaison office to find leads and the Mutants Management Committee to verify them, leaving both departments to report to him. Gwen Stacy then presented the first lead: a destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. file pointing to an old Manhattan clock shop.

• Jean Grey proposed that the Mutants Management Committee lead the task force's daily operations, while Gwen Stacy argued that the liaison office should coordinate external intelligence and tracking.
• Jean Grey and Gwen Stacy disputed their departments' authority until Lynn stopped them and declared that there would be no executive deputy leader.
• Lynn assigned the liaison office to search for TVA leads and the committee to verify, analyze, and grade them.
• Gwen Stacy reported that her department had found residual energy from a physically destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D. file pointing to a defunct clock and watch shop in Manhattan.

After the task force sidelined the Stability Maintenance Office, Hela launched an independent assault on Old John's Watch Shop in Manhattan to prove her department’s strength. The shop erased her elite troops in seconds, leaving Hela facing a humiliating failure and an expected reckoning.

• Hela rejected the recommendation for a joint investigation and classified the watch shop as a target for physical elimination.
• Hela ordered the First Undead Assault Squad to destroy Old John's Watch Shop, eliminate everything inside, and bring back the remains.
• The assault squad broke into the shop, where an orange sphere erased the soldiers and their equipment without a sound.
• The shop and its broken door returned to their original state after the sphere vanished.
• An observer reported that the shop showed no anomalies and the squad’s signals had disappeared, and Hela shut off the feed in shock.